The Slippery Rock University women’s soccer team hosted Millersville University Friday afternoon in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) matchup. The Rock, led by a two-goal game by senior Maddy Tletski, ultimately defeated the Marauders with a final score of 3-1.
The Green and White scored the first of their three unanswered goals in the 17th minute when Tletski scored off a pass from fellow senior Tess Keeley. Keeley is currently ranked in the top five in the PSAC for assists on the season (5). The goal was Tletski’s first of the season and sixth of her collegiate career. Just over five minutes later in the 22nd minute, Tletski scored her second goal of the game, this time off of a pass from junior Skye Kramer to give the rock a commanding 2-0 lead.
Slippery Rock head coach Jessica Griggs praised the “outstanding” performance from Tletski but said that prior to the game she and her team discussed how they would be able to capitalize on their offensive chances.
“Honestly, Tletski just had a really really standout game,” Griggs said. “But I talked to the girls about how there was a lot of space and transition that we could go at [Millersville] with. We knew their transition was not great defensively so we just went at them, which allowed us to score a couple of goals early on.”
The Rock’s offense would stop, however, as freshman Taylor Gunn scored her second goal of the season off a pass from freshman Sofia Harrison. The assist was Harrison’s first of the season and first of her collegiate career.
The Rock’s offense was unable to get anything past the Millersville defense for the rest of the game as goalie Katia Mujica stopped the remaining shots she faced throughout the game. Although the women were able to score three goals in the first half, the Marauders’ defense came out strong in the second half and were able to put some pressure on The Rock.
“The changed their formation and they changed their style of play,” Griggs said. “The exposed themselves a little bit but they had to try and get a goal back.”
Millersville rarely threatened SRU’s lead. In the 61st minute, however, Millersville’s Alyssa Antonelly sent a free kick to teammate Stacie Hallinan who sent the ball past junior goalie Kylie Downs to end any hope for a shutout by Slippery Rock.
Griggs said that she definitely believed her team could have come away with a shutout.
“I actually challenged the girls to get the shutout today but we won’t talk about that right now,” Griggs said.
Downs recorded 7 saves with just the one goal allowed. She is currently ranked fifth among all PSAC goalies with a .864 save percentage and is tenth in the PSAC in saves per game, recording 4.25 saves per game.
The Rock is now 8-4-1 (.654) overall and 8-3-1 (.708) in the PSAC. They are currently in fourth place in the PSAC, behind West Chester, East Stroudsburg and undefeated Kutztown. Millersville falls to 4-7-2 (.385) overall and 3-7-2 (.333) in conference play. They are currently in twelfth place in the PSAC.
The Rock will now travel to California (Pa.) University on Sunday to take on the Vulcans in a PSAC matchup. The match is set to begin at 3:30 p.m. at the Phillipsburg Soccer Facility in California, Pennsylvania.
